Recovery from metabolic syndrome is associated with a lower risk for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), finds an observational study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers studied roughly 9.5 million adults in Korea who had three or more health exams. During a median 3.5 years’ follow-up, participants who had chronic metabolic syndrome had the highest MACE rate (8.52 per 1000 person-years), followed by those who developed metabolic syndrome during the study (6.05 per 1000), those who recovered from metabolic syndrome (4.55 per 1000), and finally those who were consistently free of metabolic syndrome (1.92 per 1000).
After multivariable adjustment, patients who recovered from metabolic syndrome had a lower MACE rate than those who consistently had metabolic syndrome (incidence rate ratio, 0.85). In addition, those who developed metabolic syndrome had higher MACE risk than those who never developed it (IRR, 1.36). Among the MetS components, change in hypertension was associated with the largest difference in MACE risk.
The authors write: “Our study encourages health care providers to pay attention to a history of [metabolic syndrome] even in persons who are currently free from” it.
Read the article here. (Full article access requires a subscription to the journal)
Source: NEJM Journal Watch & Annals of Internal Medicine
